239. Chapter 235 – Merlin’s Double Game (Third Shift)

Chapter 235 – Merlin’s Double Game (Third Shift)
Mr. Reporter – or rather, there was nothing wrong with the words that Merlin had recounted to Aywas when they met at the very beginning.

There were originally two strings to this ceremony.

The closer to the top the more abstracted from reality it was, and the easier it was to investigate the story …… and thus get a higher score.

But the closer you get to the bottom, the greater the odds of winning.

Because in this case, the advantage of dying fast is the greatest.

This ritual produced by Weizhe is actually not that difficult. Its main difficulty was that it started immediately after reading the rules, giving absolutely no time for discussion and thought.

At one’s own level, there was no need to conduct any investigation.

Just need to kill everyone immediately after suicide …… and then start the investigation again on the next level. As long as the next level is found to have a body, then immediately commit suicide again to chase the same level of the promoter. In this way, you have the initiative of the “layer”.

Then, as long as you make sure you are the first to die, and after committing suicide, make sure that there are no promoters on this floor in the first place, then you will have found the zero floor. Then you have found the zero level.

So the further down you go, the more power you have.

With this strategy, whoever is the first to arrive at Tier Zero is a sure winner – not only a sure winner, but also able to eliminate anyone at will.

“Because as soon as the person who killed everyone on his birth level manages to arrive and identify Level Zero, he is the only one who knows if this is Level Zero or not, and everyone else’s intelligence is bound to be faulty. All he needs to do is find anyone who is not on his team, and then kill them by means such as suspecting them to be Merlin, or discussing descending together …… Then whether that person is Merlin or not, it’s a straight up case of condemning them to the negative.”

Ivars said word for word, the muzzle of his gun slowly resting against Pure White’s temple.

Bluebonnet’s gaze became tense, while Living Silver was on the sidelines, eyes closed and lazy.

Pure White sighed, “Believe it or not …… I did no such thing.”

“And I didn’t say you did such a thing, sorry. But you did have the opportunity to do such a thing.”

Seeing that Pure White was completely unruffled and even managed to remain calm in this situation, Aiwas’s tone became a bit more conciliatory, “After all, out of everyone here, you are the lowest tier.”

“What about Merlin?”

Bluebell couldn’t help but ask, “This reporter has already admitted to being Merlin, right?”

Even though she had just testified for the reporter, she was quickly convinced by Fox and Purewhite’s logic.

Fox and Pure White were in two camps, and it was impossible for Merlin to play both at the same time. So the logic they endorsed at the same time would be more reliable than what the reporter gave.

“In short, he can’t be killed.”

Aywas said calmly, “There are three scenarios. One is that this is Level Zero, then you can’t kill the reporter anyway – if you do, I’ll kill Pure White.

“One is that this is not Level Zero, but Level One. Taking out the lying reporter, the living silver is coming from at least Level 4 or above. Then Sherlock is on one of the 567th floors, and he’s coming down with tons of intel, and he’s going to squeeze Merlin out.

“And the worst possible scenario is that this is not the first or the zeroth floor, but the second or the third. Then there’s at least one of my companions in the top and bottom layers, and the other is Topa. Why don’t we wait here until the one from the top layer brings intel before we make a decision – he’s investigating and taking evidence alone, so I’m sure he’ll be able to get the most intel and get through the most layers.

“Daiya, the reporter, the dancer – he’s bound to be one of those three. We might as well just wait for him.”

“–There’s no need to wait.”

Just then, the reporter suddenly spoke up.

His expression suddenly turned cold.

His ten fingers were powerfully crossed, and his body naturally leaned back.

In a cold, arrogant and level voice, he slowly said, “Ask whatever you want, I’m coming.”

There was no doubt that the reporter had become a “detective”.

“How many floors have you descended?”

Ivars asked.

“Three levels. In the first level I met Mr. Topper, who was playing the dancer, acting very stupid and investigating at turtle speed …… but I couldn’t see him investigating anything. In the second level I saw the couple, the body of the monitor …… The third level is here.”

The detective said calmly, “However, I only descended three layers, but there are five people here …… so I judge that I may have descended more than three layers.

“Looking at this action of yours now, and the atmosphere at the table …… I surmise that it may be Merlin who has just been using my body. Then he should have accompanied one, or more, of you down several levels.

“But since there were three bodies in my second descent, and all were present – why don’t we let him tell us if I’ve got the numbers right?”

“Right.”

Living Silver slowly opened his eyes and replied, “Those are the ones I killed.”

After a short silence, Pure White put away his sword. Aiwas, on the other hand, pondered for a while and slowly put away his gun as well.

“I am the fox.”

He looked to the detective and confirmed, “If you’re really a detective …… tell me what you’re most interested in doing right now.”

“…… Of course I want to find Ms. Lulu first.”

The detective gave a slightly disgusted expression, “My floor, then Mr. Topper’s floor, then Mr. Living Silver’s. Followed closely by the three of you.”

He said, pointing at Ivas, Bluebonnet, and Pure White, “You three can’t be Merlin, since this body was just occupied by Merlin. That means I came down from at least the sixth floor.

“In other words, Ms. Lulu is the first layer if she’s not on the seventh layer. I’m worried that if she’s on the first floor, she’ll just kill herself twice and eliminate herself out …… so we’d better go down as soon as possible.” He said as if he realized something.

The detective scanned the room and glanced at the cups on the table. Another look at the gun in Ivars hand.

As if he thought of something, he paused slightly, calmly, and looked to Aywas, “If they don’t want to, then why don’t we both go down there and check it out first.”

Looking at the detective looking over, Aiwas was silent for a moment and suddenly laughed out.

His eyes also slowly became bright.

“Interesting …… interesting up.”

He murmured.

Seeing the detective like this, Ivars realized that there was still an omission in the previous speculation – the “must-win” method presupposed that there was no Merlin present.

Merlin could disguise the NPC as a promoter to make Level 0 look like it wasn’t Level 0, thus tricking the other party into continuing their descent. From this point of view, if the ritual is not Merlin, then it is not fair at all.

Because as long as the person on the first level chose this strategy, his chances of winning were extremely high. And no one else’s maneuvering could affect his win rate.

It was just like the iterative game, where removing the bottom layer had an effect on all the bricks above it; but removing the bricks above it had no effect on the bottom.

Would Weezer make a ritual with such a large loophole?
Moreover, almost all of the seven are connected to each other. And although there were nine seats on the first floor, the room only went up to room 206. If there were two more people, where would they stay?
If the number of rooms was changed, why wasn’t the seating changed?

Summing up the above considerations, Ivars very boldly thought of a possibility–

–From the very beginning, this was a seven-person ceremony. It was a ceremonial field used exclusively for missing seat ceremonies.

Nine seats would then not be making an excess, but implying it. In addition to the front desk, there should be another “presence” in this inn.

In other words, there must be a Merlin in this ceremony.

In other words, this ritual is based on the presence of Merlin!

So, who induced Ivars to come up with this sure-fire method?

— Or was it Merlin.

In this way, Aywas understood why Merlin’s acting was so lame before.

Instead of letting it go, he hadn’t been playing it properly at all. Because that didn’t matter at all.

So it’s just sitting here waiting for me.

“I’m thinking about a question right now,” Ivars said slowly, “Are you …… really a detective?”

“…… What, you stupid fox? What kind of demon are you trying to pull again?”

The detective’s brow furrowed, “Do you think it’s me or Merlin?”

“I don’t know. I can’t really tell.”

Ivars replied sincerely, “I don’t know if this is the second test question Merlin gave me.”

In the case where the “Law of Certainty” even just “existed”, it was entirely possible that they were now on Level 0. As long as the pure white of the first tier had drawn off this tier, they were now on tier zero.

And as long as this is Level 0, Ivars can’t do anything to the detectives.

Otherwise Sherlock would be outright eliminated by him.

But if this is not Level Zero, and Ivars perceives it as Level Zero, and therefore chooses to kill someone else or stop killing himself, he will stop at this level and be eliminated.

This is the first level of gaming.

And the reporter, who was completely unlike Sherlock before, suddenly becomes like Sherlock. If he had listened to him, then Ivars would have killed himself with him by now. In other words, the reporter is persuading Ivars to do it again.

But here’s the problem ……

–This is really the Sherlock who has descended into the body of the “reporter”, not the Merlin who has changed his tone of voice and started to play a serious role?
Are his words believable or not?

This is the second game.

Now Ivars has no place to run. He has no location where he can get evidence, and Pure White won’t give him any more information.

Yes or no to Level Zero.

Yes or no Sherlock.

Two by two, there are four possibilities.

–All point to Ivars’ puzzle, where you have to lose by answering one of the two questions incorrectly. Get them all right to win.

“It’s more like gambling than reasoning …… A one in four chance ah.”

Aywas chuckled softly, “But I took it.”

UPDATED!

(End of chapter)